Sam reached for his trilby style hat and that was always
followed by a huge rattle of legs from under the kitchen table as the dogs
rushed to be the first to get outside, but this morning was different, there
was no noise. The dogs had been tied up last night as they were being such a
nuisance in the barn, a point that both Jake and Sam were now all too aware of,
the worry, if it was there, was unspoken..
Sam climbed the stairs of the old farmhouse and stood on the
landing, he looked out of the landing window for a better view of where the
snow was thickest and which window would be the best to climb out of. In the
end Sam entered Jakes bedroom and opened up the window, he climbed on to the
ledge and threw his shovel on to the snow drift about 6 ft below him, before he
jumped Sam looked out in to the yard as his eyes were now acclimatised to the
darkness of the early dawn, it was a sight that would stick with Sam a lifetime,
the farm was under the thickest drifts of snow he had seen in his 40 years of
being on the hill side, his farm was almost unrecognisable, like a wilderness,
a wasteland, frozen in time and devoid of life, it frightened the big man but
he was never going to let that fact be known, least of all to a young seven
year old patiently waiting in the kitchen below.
Leaping from the bedroom window was a very surreal moment
for Sam, but thankfully the snow had frozen on the surface, he didn’t drop
right through it so he started to dig feverishly to the door below, the glow
from the kitchen was lighting the snow up giving off a strange unearthly glow
it seemed almost a comfort rather than the ever present peril of a huge drift.
It wasn’t long before Sam had reached the door, an overjoyed Jake opened the door to
let his dad take the last few steps into the house, Jake immediately ran to get
his hat and coat, his boots were already on the moment his Dad had left the
table!
“Grab my hand son,” Sam said in a strong voice,
“We will go and get
those dogs loose, they will sure to want their bloody breakfast by now”
With that Jake grabbed his father’s hand and the two walked
up the steep drift that had lent itself against the house overnight like some
monster consuming its prey slowly but ever surely.
Once away from the drift against the house the snow was down
to about four feet deep and less in places, still very deep but something the two
had seen before on this barren hillside farm, so they both began to feel a
little better at the situation they found themselves in, as they walked across
the unlit farmyard they both glanced back at the farm house almost at the same
time, it looked so tiny up against the huge drift that covered almost two
thirds of the building,
“Hell Jake, it must have been a bit rough out here last
night, let’s hope the sheep have got in somewhere out of sight”
As the two walked through the deep snow in the farm yard
they waited to hear the barking and rattling of chains that would follow the
moment either one of their two voices was heard, but there was nothing it was
so strange by its absence, Sam could feel something wasn’t right.
“Strange we haven’t heard the two dogs Dad” said Jake in a
quiet voice,
“Aye it is lad, they are probably asleep on the straw we put
down for them, lazy buggers” he quipped trying to reassure Jake.
But that reassurance was as ill-timed as it was misplaced,
for as the two men rounded the corner of the barn they could see nothing of
where the two dogs had been tied up overnight.
Without a word the two ran to the where the small
outbuilding had been where the dogs were tied up and started to dig through the
mound of snow that had replaced the small building, but alas it was all too
clear that it was a vain hope, the sheer weight of overnight snow had gathered
on the old rickety shed and collapsed it on top of the two dog’s with a
crushing weight that no such animal could hope to ever survive, both dogs lay
stiff and frozen under the debris, there was nothing either of them could do.
“Damn it!” Sam said as he pulled the dogs from their
temporary frozen grave,
“This is going to make the day a damn sight harder, no
bloody dogs!” the big man trying to
separate his grief of losing two of his best friends, “get a sack from by the
barn lad we will bury them later when we get back from bringing the ewes back
in, we can’t mess with it now”
Jake did as he was told, he looked at the two dogs as his
Dad pulled the sack up and put them in one by one, it was the first time Jake
had seen an animal he loved dead, he was used to seeing sheep and cattle dead
in the fields, he had grown up with it, but the 8 and 9 year old dog’s had been
there before even he had and the boy struggled to hold the tears back..
“Never mind piping your eye Jake, it’s just bloody
sheepdogs, we will get two more, these two were bloody useless anyway” Sam said in a matter of fact way, but trying
very hard not to show the sorrow that overwhelmed the big man at losing two
damn good sheepdogs and even worse a couple of good friends.
“Right, let’s feed the ewes in the barn first me lad” Sam
said almost as soon as the top of the sack was tied, “then we have a bit of
work to do to fetch those other sheep in now we haven’t any dogs to do the
legwork for us”
Jake was still trying to take it all in as he went along the
pens of sheep with fresh dry hay in bundles feeding expectant and now very
noisy sheep, Jake seeing the two dog’s in that way was a harsh reality call for
such a youngster but he was born on the land so he would soon adjust, it’s the
only way the families survived on these hillsides.
